KADiN] RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES BASED ON BLESSINGS 343 



Once a medicine-dance man and a night-blessed man became jeal- 

 ous and the medicine-dance man said that he would play tricks on the 

 night-blessed man. The night-blessed man said he was quite willing 

 to have a contest. So the two came and sat opposite each other and 

 began their contest. Whatever the medicine-dance man did the 

 night-blessed man did too, but always a little better. The medi- 

 cine-dance man was defeated, so from that time on the medicine- 

 dance men are afraid of the former. The medicine-dance men shot 

 the night-blessed men with claws, but they could not kill them. 

 Therefore they were afraid of them. The night-blessed men could 

 kill the medicine-dance men at pleasure. The medicine-dance men 

 were inferior. That is all. 



Society of Those Who Have Been Blessed By the Herok'a 



Informant, member of the Bear clan: The feast of those who have 

 been blessed by the Herok'a is given at any time of the year. Any- 

 one may be invited. The feast is held in a long lodge and is gener- 

 ally given by a number of members at the same time (or by aU). 

 Each person brings a deer and his bow and arrows. The bows and 

 arrows are painted different colors, depending upon the color (paint) 

 with which the individual has been blessed. The bows are aU stuck 

 in the gi-oimd between the first two fireplaces and the arrows in a 

 row just behind them. 



During the ceremony and feast the members all sing the songs 

 with which they have been blessed. The ceremony is held before the 

 feast and is conducted by one of the members of the society. He 

 leads, holding a bow in one hand. Tlie others follow, holding arrows 

 in their hands. Only men are permitted to dance. There are cer- 

 tain songs, to the accompaniment of which women are permitted to 

 dance. But the women must have passed their climacteric. 



They do not use gourd rattles as at the other dances. Instead a 

 niimber of deer hoofs are strung together and used in place of them. 

 (They do not eat with their hands or with the ordinary sticks) but use 

 instead forked sticks, whittled down at one end. The leader wears 

 a headdress to which a horn is attached, and paints his body with 

 the same color as his arrows. Whoever leads the dance carries a 

 flute, which he plays before and after each song. Those following 

 him hit their mouth with the palm of their hands and whoop. 



When the dance is over, each one of the feasters takes his plate and 

 dances out.'' 



1' This account of the Herok'a Society is unfortunately merely fragmentary, but from a few additional 

 notes obtained there seems to be little doubt that it represents the same type of organization as the other 

 religious fraternities. 



